This scene takes place over Valentine’s Day weekend. Garret wants to make every holiday special for Jade because she never celebrated anything growing up.

“Come check this out.” Garret opens the drapes in the living room. It’s dark out so he turns the outside lights on and I see that we have our own private balcony complete with reclining chairs and a small hot tub.

We go outside and I lie down on one of the chairs. “Can I sleep out here?”

He laughs. “No. I wouldn’t be able to sleep next to you.”

There’s a knock on the door to the room. Garret leaves to answer it, but I stay outside breathing in the salty ocean air.

“Close your eyes.” Garret’s outside again, but he’s standing behind me so I can’t see him.

“I’m afraid to. What are you doing?”

“You don’t trust me? That hurts, Jade.” He’s kidding, but I play along.

“I’m sorry. I totally trust you. My eyes are closed.”

“Now open your mouth.”

“Why? What are you feeding me? Is it green? Because I don’t eat green foods.”

He’s laughing again. “It’s not green. God, I swear you’re the worst person to surprise. You need to relax and just go with it.”

I open my mouth and he puts a small square of something in it. Chocolate. The creamiest, richest chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

“Good, right?”

I open my eyes and see him sitting in the chair next to me, unwrapping his own piece of chocolate.

“Really good. Where did you get these?”

“They’re from Belgium, from a really small store in Brussels. My dad was there a few years ago for business and he brought a box of these back. I’d never had chocolate that tasted that good. I thought you might like it so I ordered some.”

“This is definitely the best chocolate I’ve ever had.”

“Try this.” He holds up a tray of chocolate-covered strawberries.

I take a bite of a ripe, sweet strawberry dipped in that same Belgian chocolate.

“Those are so good. I need to have another.”

He hands me a strawberry. “I just realized I’m being a total cliché. The guy who buys his girlfriend chocolate and flowers for Valentine’s Day and takes her to a fancy hotel. Is that lame?”

“It’s not lame. I love it. This is my first Valentine’s Day. I want all the clichés.”

“Well, next year I’ll do something completely different.”

“So no flowers and chocolate? Because I kind of like those things, especially the chocolate.”

“I agree. The chocolate must remain. But the rest will be different.”

“You know you didn’t have to do all this. The flowers in my room would have been enough.”

He slips his hand into mine and says simply, “I had to show you the ocean.”

Excerpt taken from Loving You (The Jade Series #3),
Copyright 2013 Allie Everhart